Abstract

Molecular dynamics simulations have been used to study the melting of GaN nanowires with triangular cross-sections. The curve of the potential energy, along with the atomic configuration is used to monitor the phase transition. The thermal stability of GaN nanowires is dependent on the size of the nanowires. The melting temperature of the GaN nanowires increases with the increasing of area cross-section of the nanowires to a saturation value. An interesting result is that of the nanowires start to melt from the edges, then the surface, and extends to the inner regions of nanowires as temperature increases.

@article{osti_901180,
title = {Size dependence of melting of GaN nanowires with triangular cross sections},
author = {Wang, Zhiguo and Zu, Xiaotao and Gao, Fei and Weber, William J.},
abstractNote = {Molecular dynamics simulations have been used to study the melting of GaN nanowires with triangular cross-sections. The curve of the potential energy, along with the atomic configuration is used to monitor the phase transition. The thermal stability of GaN nanowires is dependent on the size of the nanowires. The melting temperature of the GaN nanowires increases with the increasing of area cross-section of the nanowires to a saturation value. An interesting result is that of the nanowires start to melt from the edges, then the surface, and extends to the inner regions of nanowires as temperature increases.},
doi = {10.1063/1.2512140},
journal = {Journal of Applied Physics, 101(4):043511},
number = 4,
volume = 101,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2007},
month = {Thu Feb 15 00:00:00 EST 2007}
}

Molecular dynamics simulations with Stillinger-Weber potentials were used to study the response of wurtzite-type single crystalline GaN nanowires to a tensile strain along the axial direction. Nanowires with axial orientations along the [0001], [1 00] and [11 0] crystallographic directions, which correspond to experimentally synthesized nanowires, were studied. The results reveal that the nanowires with different axial orientations show distinctly different deformation behavior under loading. The brittle to ductile transition (BDT) was observed in the nanowires oriented along the [0001] direction and the BDT temperatures lie in the temperature range between 1500 and 1800 K. The nanowires oriented along themore » [11 0] direction exhibit slip in the {01 0} planes; whereas the nanowires oriented along the [1 00] direction fracture in a cleavage manner under tensile loading. It should be emphasized that multiple yield stresses were observed during different stages in the [11 0]-oriented nanowires. In general, Young's modulus of the GaN nanowires decreases with decreasing diameter of the nanowires.« less

Graphical abstract: Temperature dependence of calculated lattice thermal conductivity of Wurtzite GaN nanowires. Highlights: Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer A modified Callaway model is used to calculate lattice thermal conductivity of Wurtzite GaN nanowires. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer A direct method is used to calculate phonon group velocity for these nanowires. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer 3-Gruneisen parameter, surface roughness, and dislocations are successfully investigated. Black-Right-Pointing-Pointer Dislocation densities are decreases with the decrease of wires diameter. -- Abstract: A detailed calculation of lattice thermal conductivity of freestanding Wurtzite GaN nanowires with diameter ranging from 97 to 160 nm in the temperature range 2-300 K, was performed using a modified Callaway model.more » Both longitudinal and transverse modes are taken into account explicitly in the model. A method is used to calculate the Debye and phonon group velocities for different nanowire diameters from their related melting points. Effect of Gruneisen parameter, surface roughness, and dislocations as structure dependent parameters are successfully used to correlate the calculated values of lattice thermal conductivity to that of the experimentally measured curves. It was observed that Gruneisen parameter will decrease with decreasing nanowire diameters. Scattering of phonons is assumed to be by nanowire boundaries, imperfections, dislocations, electrons, and other phonons via both normal and Umklapp processes. Phonon confinement and size effects as well as the role of dislocation in limiting thermal conductivity are investigated. At high temperatures and for dislocation densities greater than 10{sup 14} m{sup -2} the lattice thermal conductivity would be limited by dislocation density, but for dislocation densities less than 10{sup 14} m{sup -2}, lattice thermal conductivity would be independent of that.« less

The thermal conductivity of GaN nanowires has been determined computationally, by applying nonequilibrium atomistic simulation methods using the Stillinger-Weber [Phys. Rev. B 31, 5262 (1985)] potentials. The simulation results show that the thermal conductivity of the GaN nanowires is smaller than that of a bulk crystal and increases with increasing diameter. Surface scattering of phonons and the high surface to volume ratios of the nanowires are primarily responsible for the reduced thermal conductivity and its size dependence behavior. The thermal conductivity is also found to decrease with increasing temperature, which is due to phonon-phonon interactions at high temperatures. The thermalmore » conductivity also exhibits a dependence on axial orientation of the nanowires.« less

Gallium nitride (GaN) is a high-temperature semiconductor material of considerable interest. It emits brilliant light and has been considered as a key material for the next generation of high frequency and high power transistors that are capable of operating at high temperatures. Due to its anisotropic and polar nature, GaN exhibits direction-dependent properties. Growth directions along [001], [1-10] and [110] directions have all been synthesized experimentally. In this work, molecular dynamics simulations are carried out to characterize the mechanical properties of GaN nanowires with different orientations at different temperatures. The simulation results reveal that the nanowires with different growth orientationsmore » exhibit distinct deformation behavior under tensile loading. The nanowires exhibit ductility at high deformation temperatures and brittleness at lower temperature. The brittle to ductile transition (BDT) was observed in the nanowires grown along the [001] direction. The nanowires grown along the [110] direction slip in the {010} planes, whereas the nanowires grown along the [1-10] direction fracture in a cleavage manner under tensile loading.« less

In this study, ammonia-based molecular beam epitaxy (NH 3-MBE) was used to grow catalyst-assisted GaN nanowires on (11¯02) r-plane sapphire substrates. Dislocation free [112¯0] oriented nanowires are formed with pentagon shape cross-section, instead of the usual triangular shape facet configuration. Specifically, the cross-section is the result of the additional two nonpolar {101¯0} side facets, which appear due to a decrease in relative growth rate of the {101¯0} facets to the {101¯1} and {101¯1} facets under the growth regime in NH 3-MBE. Compared to GaN nanowires grown by Ni-catalyzed metal–organic chemical vapor deposition, the NH 3-MBE grown GaN nanowires show moremore » than an order of magnitude increase in band-edge to yellow luminescence intensity ratio, as measured by cathodoluminescence, indicating improved microstructural and optical properties.« less